Holy terror, Batman! Gotham's under attack, and the caped crusader is the only one who can kick al-Qaida's butt.

That, in essence, is the plot of the latest Batman comic book by leading graphic novelist Frank Miller.

Speaking at a comic book convention in San Francisco at the weekend, Miller, the author of The Dark Knight Returns and the Sin City series, said Batman could ill afford to chase fantasy villains when the real thing was on his doorstep.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, it's a piece of propaganda," he said.

"Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That's one of the things they're there for.

"These are our folk heroes. I just think it's silly to have Batman out chasing the Riddler when you've got al-Qaida out there."

Comparing Batman to Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry character - a lone urban hero fighting a crime wave - Miller said: "Batman kicks al-Qaida's ass ... I wish the entertainers of our time had the spine and the focus of the ones who faced down Hitler."

In the book, Holy Terror, Batman is "a reminder to people who seem to have forgotten who we're up against", the author said.

Miller, 49, is credited with rejuvenating the Batman series when he returned the character to his dark roots in the Dark Knight Returns in the 1980s. He is one of the most successful graphic novelists, and last year turned to film, co-directing the adaptation of his graphic novel series Sin City.

Miller has drawn 120 pages of the 200-page graphic novel. There is no completion date.

and they say the graphic 'novel' is a viable art form. Not just a mouthpiece for some reactionary old tosser then?

and they say the graphic 'novel' is a viable art form. Not just a mouthpiece for some reactionary old tosser then?

Well, on the one hand as a rabid fan of most things that are graphic novels, I have to say that I am dissapointed that this new venture for Batman is so blatently poiltical. And yet on the other, I have to admit, that in one form or another, most mainstream 'comics' - Batman, Superman, The Fantastic Four to name but a few, have all carried some form of political bias. Look at the X-Men. Please correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't that carry the 'Peace and brotherhood to all' and the 'Do not discriminate because I am a minority and different message'?

Comics and graphic novels can be seen as a form of art. And as with any form of art they portray with them the opinions and messages of the artist. Can we really condone them for using that media for getting their voice accross? Or should we applaud them for having an opinion and getting it out there when so many turn away?

Please don't misunderstand me. I do not necessarily support what he is doing. I personally feel that this is another example of Uncle Sam leding the 'Great Americam People' around by their noses and then helping them to swallow vast quantities of manure. Lets face it. They have not exaclty been winning their "war", so they will use whatever they can to glorify Americana and deamonise everything else.

The problem that we have as intelegant people, is that we can't muzzle expressions such as these, or we play the role of the bad guys, trying to destroy "Freedom as we know it".

We can either accept this as the way its going to be, or we can start playing them at their own game, and fight fire with fire.

Lets face it, are we ever going to see Batman wielding a rubber hose and a pair of electrodes at Abu Ghraib? Perhaps we should.....

(many appologies for my spelling. I have a head cold and my brain has gone damp)

I know very very little about graphic novels and comics (except for the fact that the artists involved put a huge amount of themselves into the work - a family friend has spent his whole life working in this field), but surely Saris is right and they are a form of art, and as such shouldn't be sweepingly dismissed in such a scathing way as Amner has.

I've always considered graffiti to be writing rather than drawing. It's a version of graffio (scribbling or scratching) after all, and possibly before that from the Latin graphire, to write with a stylus. My interpretation, admittedly.